Hello again, It is I, your favourite single 22-year-old male, here to share with you how I make bread. To help you understand why I might be able to do this, I will tell you that in the last two weeks I have made over 12 loaves of bread and have no plans on stopping. It was requested on Twitter that I share my process, so here it goes.
First of all, I use a bread maker, so I suppose it isn’t really making bread but it is a good place to start and mostly fail proof.
When it comes to combining the ingredients there really isn’t any secret, I just throw everything thing in. To be totally honest I hardly measure anything anymore. Yeast, flour, sugar, salt, marg and water. I do store my yeast in the fridge, that being said it also expired in 2011… still works. I also try to use room temperature water.
Once all the ingredients are in the bread maker I set it to the dough cycle and let it go. My primary Black and Decker maker takes 1:30hrs to mix, while my secondary one takes 2:25hrs. Why? I have no clue. I normally stop the second one early and knead it a bit myself.
Now as soon as it is done I make sure I’m there to transfer it to bread tins. When I first take the dough out of the bread maker I kneaded it around for no more than 10 seconds or so in a small bit of flour so it isn’t as sticky.
To let it rise I have tried several things, just sitting out on the stove, in the sun light, under a lamp and right in the stove after it had warmed up to about 175º. I don’t recommend this last one as each time I have done this the dough rises really well but as soon as you take it out it deflates. I’d say in the sun or under a lamp over night is best.
Then baking it is dead simple, heat the oven to 375º and bake for 18 to 20 mins give or take. I don’t normally time it too closely as my internal clock is pretty good for the bread now.
Take the bread out of the oven and remove it from the tin to cool. My bread always comes out very soft and rarely very dense.
If there is something I’d like to improve on it would be getting the dough to rise better and having the end product be a little denser (I think they are related).
White Bread Ingredients:
- 1TSP – Yeast
- 2 Cups – Flour
- 1TSP – Salt
- 2 TBSP – Sugar
- 2 TBSP – Margarine or Shortening
- 3/4 Cup – Water
I have also made, herb bread with fresh herbs I’ve grown, cheese bread and garlic and onion.
Monica says
This was a very interesting post on how you make bread. I think it is fabulous that you do make bread & this article inspires the rest of us to give it a try. Thanks & have a great day!
KyleWith says
Thanks, Monica.